Right Through to the End
by flecksofpoppy
Summary: Written for the 1sentence LJ comm, Reno/Rude, Alpha prompt set.


**Right Through to the End**

**#01 - Comfort**  
>When Tseng asks Rude if he's comfortably settled into his new position, he looks over at Reno uneasily and swallows, but says yes.<p>

**#02 - Kiss**  
>When Rude first kisses Chelsea, he tells Reno about it, because after all, they're really only eighteen even though they kill people for a living, and Reno just looks uncomfortable and tries to smile; not because he's jealous, but because he's never kissed anyone like that.<p>

**#03 - Soft**  
>For all of its durability, the fabric of the new blue suit, and especially the shirt, is softer than anything Reno has ever worn, and Rude says nothing when Reno runs a hand down his new partner's arm absently and says as much.<p>

**#04 - Pain**  
>They work well together, because neither one empathizes with the pain of their victims (screams, pleas and begging do nothing to move Reno or Rude), and when Reno shocks the sorry sacks of shit to their last, Rude just gets rid of the bodies without a word; however, the more they realize that they belong somewhere now, the more complicated their detachment from the world will become.<p>

**#05 - Potatoes**  
>The only thing that Rude knows how to cook is potatoes, since that's what they grow where he comes from; Reno is still stuck on the fact that it is possible to grow food from the ground at all.<p>

**#06 - Rain**  
>Reno learned very quickly that using an electromag rod in the rain is a bad idea, and Rude is laughing low in his throat when he picks his partner up and pours a potion down his throat; Reno laughs with him when he's conscious again.<p>

**#07 - Chocolate**  
>Reno convinces Rude one day to try a mudslide, and Rude nearly spits out the chocolately-tasting concoction, cleansing his mouth with two gulps of whiskey while Reno finishes it, laughing, saying, <em>"Too man for a little sugar?"<em>

**#08 - Happiness**  
>Reno always thought happiness would be having a steady job and not living below the plate, and Rude really never had any ambition to be happy at all, but they both know what home is now, which is close enough.<p>

**#09 - Telephone**  
>If Reno didn't have to answer his telephone for work, he never would, and he tells Rude quietly one night while he's drunk that the way the PHS makes people's voices sound tinny unnerves him.<p>

**#10 - Ears**  
>Rude has better hearing than any of the other Turks, but all he can hear when Reno licks and bites at his ear is hot, heavy breath; it's in a bar, and although Reno doesn't deny he did it, he turns away abruptly, and they don't talk about it again.<p>

**#11 - Name**  
>For the first few years they were partners, Reno and Rude both wondered about each other's last names, stealing small glances at ID badges and the company database, until they finally realized that neither one actually had one; it remains unclear whether this is by choice or by circumstance.<p>

**#12 - Sensual**  
>Sensuality is something that Rude discovers is different than sex as he gets older, and he finds it in the curve of Reno's collarbone when his wrinkled half-buttoned shirt sags just enough.<p>

**#13 - Death**  
>He's been a Turk for over five years and Reno still drinks out of jars, even though the tumblers provided for him in his company apartment are crystal and pristine, recycled from the last sorry (now) dead fuck who lived here; they smell of death, and Rude never complains about whiskey sipped through the twist of glass meant for screwing on lids.<p>

**#14 - Sex**  
>Sex is something Rude discovers is less exciting than he first thought as he gets older, but he finds this not to be the case when he thinks of what it would be like to fuck a man.<p>

**#15 - Touch**  
>Rude has never been able to touch anything without destroying it; Reno tells him it's okay, that bruises are reminders that he's alive, and sometimes darkly colored memories of something he enjoyed.<p>

**#16 - Weakness**  
>No Turk thinks of themselves as weak, but Reno and Rude hold their own mortality as close as they do their own breath; this doesn't stop them from wanting things.<p>

**#17 - Tears**  
>Neither one of them cry, and it's strange when it happens by accident-Rude's eyes tearing in the wind or Reno smelling onions, eyes welling, but there's no sorrow; there can't be.<p>

**b#18 - Speed**  
>It's fast, when Rude first takes off Reno's shirt, and the speed terrifies him, the first thing to terrify him since the day he thought he had been partnered with a lunatic who was going to kill him in his sleep; now Reno looks exactly the same way as he realizes what is happening, but Rude doesn't let him go.<p>

**#19 - Wind**  
>The wind at the top of the Shinra building would make anyone's eyes tear, and sometimes they go up together, just to look at the view and cry by accident.<p>

**#20 - Freedom**  
>Everything is a cage for Reno, but there are times when he hands over his freedom willingly (Shinra) and there have been times when he is captured (poverty); he's not sure where he is when he sometimes lies in bed with Rude.<p>

**#21 - Life**  
>When Rude saves Reno's ass, that's exactly how he thinks of it, and he knows he'll save Rude's ass the next time: there's no dramatic saving of lives and gratitude; it's all just collateral damage accounted for in scars and friendly jeers about the fact that one of them managed to get hit at all.<p>

**#22 - Jealousy**  
>Rude isn't sure if Reno is fucking anyone else, and he's not the jealous type; but despite Rude's quiet seemingly indifferent demeanor, his focus, and his ability to carry out the most brutal of orders...he <em>cares<em> about shit like that, and sometimes in his weaker moments, the thought bothers him.

**#23 - Hands**  
>When they first met and Rude reached out to shake hands, Reno stared at the hand coming at him in surprise, then shot a fist straight into Rude's shoulder; it didn't land since Rude caught it and crushed Reno's fingers just enough to suggest breaking bone, and then they were looking at each other, and Reno had started to laugh, saying, <em>"Sorry man, thought you were gonna deck me. Wanna let go of my hand now? You're a real thug, you know that?"<em>

**#24 - Taste**  
>Reno makes the <em>air<em> taste like cigarettes, but Rude knows that just underneath there is the smell of other things that are familiar about Reno, small things-the shampoo he uses and the aftershave and the scent of the _special dry cleaners_ they all use for their suits-and he feels something tighten inside of him when he's allowed to push his face against Reno's neck and smell his skin.

**#25 - Devotion**  
>After almost ten years, Reno occasionally contemplates his devotion to the Turks, and realizes that he doesn't know what he would do without them; more specifically, without Rude.<p>

**#26 - Forever**  
>There is no happy ending for them, but it's not tragic either, because whether one of them dies or not, they know that once a Turk, always a Turk; this is extremely convenient, because they're in it for the forever-long-haul, and partners don't get divorces-they kill each other or suck it up.<p>

**#27 - Blood**  
>Reno gets less blood on his electromag rod than Rude gets on his hands, but they both know equally how fast it dries, what color it turns, how hot it is, and how hard it is to get off.<p>

**#28 - Sickness**  
>Rude is sick with a cold and it's so pathetic to watch him that Reno just shakes his head and asks if he wants food, <em>"Like a potato or some shit, I dunno, I can try;"<em> Rude laughs, but feels something bittersweet twist in his chest while Reno fumbles around in his kitchen.

**#29 - Melody**  
>Reno's voice is musical when he talks and gesticulates, especially when he's drunk and in a good mood, a strange raspy, masculine melody that tells terrible stories of gruesome things that shouldn't be funny, but are in their sheer absurdity-how <em>do<em> you tell someone that's about to die and bleeding all over the place that they can't say goodbye to their cat?

**#30 - Star**  
>Starry skies make Reno dizzy, so he steals Rude's sunglasses and wears them in the dark if they're outside of Midgar on a clear night.<p>

**#31 - Home**  
>Reno likes to say the word "home" more than anything else, especially when he says it to Rude, even if it is a giant corporate tower.<p>

**#32 - Confusion**  
>One of Reno's favorite spells to cast is Confuse, and when he tells Rude with a ragged edge to his voice that he likes to watch their targets scurry around like confused ants that he can step on, Rude just puts a hand on his shoulder and says that they don't have to be sadists to do their job, because he knows Reno isn't one.<p>

**#33 - Fear**  
>Reno is afraid of bugs; Rude thinks this is really funny until he gets bitten by one in the slums, and the next day one of his fingers glows dim Mako green and starts to rot until he drinks a potion.<p>

**#34 - Lightning/Thunder**  
>One of Rude's favorite spells to cast is Lightening because he likes watching things explode; Reno decides later that he agrees, especially because unless death needs to be prolonged (in their line of work, this isn't so rare), there's no reason not to make it quick, and he realizes that he isn't a sadist; electricity is also a fragile thing to wield, and he learns the art of how to control suffering.<p>

**#35 - Bonds**  
>Reno finds handcuffs ridiculous, since they imply the simple transit of a target from one place to another (there are no trials or arrests in Reno's world), and when Rude says he'll show Reno the benefits of using them to bind, Reno isn't sure whether he's referring to their work or other things.<p>

**#36 - Market**  
>Rude used to work in Wall Market before he became a Turk and he doesn't like to talk about it, so whenever recognition registers on someone's face, Reno shoots them a sharp smile with too many teeth, because although he <em>does<em> like to terrify people, he likes Rude more.

**#37 - Technology**  
>Rude likes to build bombs as a side hobby; Reno's not so good with technology, though he does know how to diffuse them, and sometimes they go to abandoned areas in the slums and see how fast Reno can diffuse the live ones.<p>

**#38 - Gift**  
>Reno doesn't keep "stuff," so when Rude says he has a gift for him, he keeps quiet and focuses uneasy eyes on the ground; Rude just puts a hand on his shoulder and says, <em>"It comes in a bottle, partner, and doesn't last long with us around. Let's drink it and go watch the damn tree light up. We're off tonight-why not?"<em>

**#39 - Smile**  
>Rude doesn't smile very often, but when he does, it's when no one is looking at them.<p>

**#40 - Innocence**  
>Rude didn't know innocence until he was ordered to kill a child, and Reno didn't watch when he did it-not because of his own conscience, but because of the look on Rude's face; to this day, he's not sure whether Rude let the kid go or not, nor is he sure if he wants to know, but if it ever comes up, he'll take care of it himself.<p>

**#41 - Completion**  
>At the completion of a decade's worth of service in the Turks, Reno decides to celebrate by getting drunk and goes home with a hooker; Rude hears about it the next day from Reno himself, and when he doesn't respond immediately, a surprised expression crosses Reno's face, and Rude mumbles something about why bother paying for it if you don't have to.<p>

**#42 - Clouds**  
>Rude used to watch clouds as a child and point out shapes, and Reno says, <em>"What the fuck, like some two-bit fortuneteller?"<em> uncomfortably, because he doesn't know what in the hell Rude is talking about; the next time they're out of Midgar, Rude challenges Reno to point out how many different kinds of weapons he can see in the cloud forms sweeping across vast empty plains that he knows terrify Reno.

**#43 - Sky**  
>Reno and Rude's sky has always been made of metal; literally and figuratively (respectively speaking), and they both stare up at the stars for different reasons.<p>

**#44 - Heaven**  
>Heaven is a bar that Reno will destroy when he commits mass murder; Rude liked the girl there once upon a time, and after the plate drops, Reno won't stop talking to him about Tifa with a laugh in his throat that is always turning into something else until he chokes it back.<p>

**#45 - Hell**  
>Hell is Reno's hospital room, purgatory was the waiting room, but judgment is something that Rude never brings with him.<p>

**#46 - Sun**  
>Meteor is nothing compared to the terror of seeing the sun for the first time, and when Reno looks up at the burning sky, he's not afraid, especially with the sound of Rude's footsteps behind him when they finally walk away from AVALANCHE in the dark.<p>

**#47 - Moon**  
>Reno comments idly one day that the moon looks like a portal to another world; it's rare that Reno is philosophical, but Rude doesn't laugh, and just agrees, and they stare at it together.<p>

**#48 - Waves**  
>The way their bodies crash together seems like waves, and as Reno shoves his hips back against Rude, moaning, Rude realizes that it's been a long time since he's seen anyone else's marks on Reno's skin.<p>

**#49 - Hair**  
>When Reno asks Rude why he shaved his head, Rude asks Reno where he got his scars, and they both stop talking; until the next day, when Rude asks him again more softly, and Reno tells him how and Rude tells Reno what color his hair is underneath the razor.<p>

**#50 - Supernova**  
>Reno is made of color and light, and Rude is the silence that encapsulates him; Tseng thinks, right after Cloud Strife saves the world again, that maybe this supernova the two of them create-electricity, violence, heat-is one of the forces that has kept all of them alive for this long, one of the reasons why they can all stand side by side in the Healing Rain, and know that death is the only thing that will ever separate any of them.<p> 


End file.
